What The Rich Will Never Know (Fortunately)

I had a startling assignment in my Criminal Law class. One of the most famous criminal law cases is about whether men who killed and ate a boy while stranded can avoid being convicted of murder because of necessity, needing to do it to survive. (Spoiler: they are convicted.)

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As I read the case, I felt like I could relate a little bit, or at least imagine myself in that difficult situation. On the other hand, when I researched cases about drug deals last semester, I don't think I imagined myself in their shoes at all. Even though I know and see people who regularly do drugs, it's hard for me to conceive why someone would consume or sell something that could create so many legal, social, and health problems for them. And yet when I read an inconceivable case about people stranded on a boat contemplating cannibalism, I find myself imagining being on the boat, and reassuring myself that I would of course be noble and die of hunger first.

I think that I am more separated from some modern and local social circles than I am from people starving on a boat in the 1800s. And I don't think that I am the exception. Perhaps I'm flattering myself, but I think I have interacted in quite a few social circles that I am not really a part of. I served as a missionary in Guatemala, have extended family who have had drug and legal trouble, interact with refugees in humble circumstances, and occasionally talk to the homeless people I see.

But consuming drugs still seems totally irrational to me. It doesn't seem like just a different utility function (difference in preferences), but like something totally crazy and incomprehensible.

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What might I learn from this? Well, one idea is that drugs are addictive beyond what I can understand. But this doesn't explain why the rich don't start taking drugs in the first place. And of course there are tragic stories, often with youth, of even well-off people who lose everything to drugs. (I say rich because it made a nice title and provokes thought about the social circles we are most affected by, but it includes pretty much everyone without substance abuse issues and excludes most celebrities; a more accurate title might be What Non-Addicts Will Never Know). I imagine that certain pressures, like peer pressure and financial pressure, play a role.

I think that a large part of the population (drug addicts) is misunderstood by the more productive part (non-addicts) of society which holds all positions of power. How can we help people to achieve deeply meaningful lives when they feel driven to satiate a desire for drugs, and we don’t understand that drive? I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic, please comment!

Settling into Nasty Equilibria

Game theory: predicting  player B’s move based on player A's.

Say that Restaurant A chooses to advertise. How does that affect Restaurant B? Restaurant B has to advertise so that Restaurant A doesn't take all the business. Both restaurants may be better off by eliminating the cost of advertising. Yet, both are allured by an initial burst of business that results from advertising before the other, and this sucks both players into a mutually harmful outcome, or equilibrium.

When the marble stops rolling back and forth, it is in equilibrium. We hope to end up in good equilibria.

In Professor Jaren Pope’s economics class, I learned that when tobacco companies were banned from advertising, the profits in the tobacco industry increased. This is because the companies could keep their market shares without spending money on advertising.

Despite this and other anecdotes, banning all advertising may not be beneficial overall, because advertisements can convey useful information and bring to light new products and features. Nevertheless, if a company advertises merely to entice the consumers’ minds before its arch-competitor, then the companies are perhaps stuck in a mutually harmful equilibrium (settling point), in which both must advertise in order to stay alive, even though both prefer that neither advertise.

There are a lot of unfortunate equilibria that we can succumb to individually. For example, you might feel the need at work to dress nicer or work more hours in order to fit in. You'd probably prefer that everybody simultaneously dress less expensively and work fewer hours. Then cheaper or more comfortable attire would not compromise your level of belongingness.

Family relationships can also exhibit adverse equilibria. A husband might feel that if he doesn't yell back at his wife, then she will walk all over him, and she might feel the same towards him, even though both would be happier if there were a little more meekness in their relationship.

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Jesus Christ has the solution: break the bad equilibrium. Turn the other cheek, and don't be afraid to be persecuted for a while. In His plan, the equilibrium will become better for those who keep His commandments. I have seen this in families and other groups that live His gospel of faith and repentance.

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